Friday afternoon’s UNL
press release announcing the University of Nebraska's Board of Regents'
unanimous approval for a new Research Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior did not and
should not have included a single reference to Nebraska football. But make no
mistake. That simple statement fairly reverberates as Nebraska’s newest and most
unique influencer for football recruiting, at least in my lifetime.

Don’t
just accept my opinion on the athletic benefits of what seems like a purely
academic announcement. In our corner is Ross
Els, Nebraska’s recruiting coordinator for football. Seven months
before the curtain goes up on what will be called CB3, Els
has grasped the impact it will have. The result of this historic breakthrough
will be the first on-campus, shared academic/athletic research facility in the
history of intercollegiate athletics.

We sat down with Els in his second-floor North Stadium
office and asked him to help us paint the big picture of Nebraska’s 2013
football recruiting class, and he was more than willing to elaborate on why he
thinks the entire East Stadium Expansion Project packs such a game-changing wallop
in terms of recruiting.

Please feel free to join our conversation because it
begins with an explanation of how that new center already applies to 23
recruits who have given Nebraska their verbal commitments to sign letters of
intent on Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Q:The East Stadium Expansion
Project was officially approved by the University of Nebraska Regents on
Friday. How big a deal is that?

A: When you look at the whole
East Stadium expansion, there are a lot of pluses. No. 1, when you walk out on
that field, you’re surrounded. I mean, no more is there even a little bit of an
opening where you can see sky. People are right on top of you, and even though
the fans aren’t in the stands yet, our recruits are walking out there and
saying: ‘Oh my goodness!’ It’s just like the press box behind them on the west
side. The visiting teams will look across the field now, and the fans will be
surrounding them with 15 rows of seats on top of the new skyboxes from one end
of the field to the other.

Q: Will that create a more
intimidating atmosphere for visiting teams?

A: Sure ... absolutely, plus
the new stadium shows that we’re willing to continue to improve our facilities
and spend the money to make us the best program we can possibly be. That
includes the two new research areas that will be inside the East Stadium.
That’s a huge commitment – one that’s finally brought academics and athletics
together.

Q: How does that influence
recruiting?

A: Anytime you start to deal
with research in the medical area, it’s great because there are so many
unknowns, especially with brain studies. I think a lot of kids and families are
coming in here and saying ‘Wow, you guys really are state-of-the-art.’ It makes
sense for us. We’re state-of-the-art in academics, in life skills, in nutrition
and in strength training. Now we’re moving that direction in athletic research.
That’s our next big thing, and it’s going to have a huge impact on recruiting.
It’s important when recruits and families see us dedicating our efforts to
their sons’ health and their safety with the latest in technology. It’s more
proof that we are not a program that sits on our laurels. We’re always trying
to get better and constantly striving for new ways to show our leadership.
There’s no question that people really are excited about what that East
Stadium will do for our recruiting. Huge deal, and recruiting is part of the
vision from our Hall-of-Fame coach that made something like that a priority as
athletic director.

Q:You have no 2013 recruiting visits scheduled for this or next weekend, but you are hosting a Junior Day for 2014 recruits on Saturday. How many players will be here and how much has the process
accelerated?

A:Let me show you a
chart on the TV screen. Here’s probably the biggest thing that’s changed
recruiting. When you look at this chart (showing
Big Ten Conference recruiting commitments over the last five years), you
see the number of commitments by June 1 of their junior years. That number
doubled last June for every year except 2009. This recruiting class is
committing a heck of a lot sooner than they ever have before. Here’s another
look. See how they started to commit early with these two big spikes right here
– one last February another last April? That was for 2013 recruits.

Q: What moved the needle and
pushed a faster recruiting cycle?

A: Competition, I guess. For
some reason, something has really sped up for this class. Since kids are making
decisions much sooner, we’ve had to adjust and develop relationships sooner so
we could get them on campus. We’re hosting about 15 kids on Saturday – 10 from
Nebraska and five more from out-of-state. We’ve changed the math and are making
Junior Day more specialized than the 45 or so kids we’ve hosted at once in the
past. We’ve invited just the top players in the area on this one. We’ll host
another one in the spring, and then we’ll probably host another Big Red Weekend
after that.

Q: Is everyone in the
recruiting game accelerating like Nebraska is?

A: I would think so, just
seeing the number of offered guys that are already out there. They’re
getting their offers earlier than ever before. You can read or follow that on Twitter,
etcetera. So many head coaches are getting out there early. They can’t visit
with the 2014 kids that are juniors right now but they can stop by the school
and see the coach. So we have to do the same thing, and we’re asking Bo
(Pelini) when he’s doing his home visits on this year’s class to visit the same
schools so he can get an idea of what will be coming down the pipeline in the
future.

Q: Seems like Bo is here,
there and everywhere. How hard do you push him?

A:He’s been on the road every
day for this whole recruiting cycle all the way through December and all the
way through January. He’s been a trooper. He’s really going hard.

Q: How often is he on the road
by himself?

A:It’s about 50-50. Sometimes,
he’s by himself, and sometimes he’s with others. It’s all based on whatever and
wherever we can be the most efficient.

Q: In a nutshell, what’s the
most pivotal point in recruiting?

A: Getting kids to visit.
Whenever we can get them on campus, they’re sold. Everybody that comes here
talks about the great visit they had in Lincoln. It’s the same thing about the
home visits with Bo because he tells you: ‘This is what it’s really going to be
like here. Sure, we want you to be a great football player and all that, but
it’s more important about what kind of person you are and what kind of man you
become.’ That’s what parents need to hear, and, fortunately, Bo not only says
it, but backs it up. And that makes him a very successful closer in recruiting.

Q: What are Nebraska’s biggest
recruiting advantages?

A: No. 1 is
the tradition of the program itself. Even though the ‘90s was the last time we
won a conference championship or a national championship, we still get a lot of
respect from a football program standpoint all over the country. We’re one of
only four teams to win at least nine games every year over the last five years.
The other three teams that have done that are Alabama, Oregon and Boise State,
so we’re in pretty good company.

Q: What ranks second?

A: I would say the overall
philosophy that Bo has and what type of person he wants to recruit. Parents
know we can get their kids to the next level because we have a strong track
record for doing that.

Q: What’s the most surprising
part of football recruiting?

A:Once we get recruits to
Lincoln, both the parents and the kids are pleasantly surprised by the city.
Our facilities are probably as good as anywhere. Other schools may have as good
a weight room or as good an indoor facility as what we have, but when you
combine everything that we have in all the different departments and the people
that are going to help their son get to that level we’re talking about, that’s
what I think impresses – and surprises – people the most.

Q: Coaches and staffers are always talking
about the importance of centralized facilities. How does that affect recruiting?

A:It’s a big differentiator. Recruits can see
how easy it is to walk out of a chemistry class and a few minutes later be in
one of the best, if not the best, student-life complex in the country. They can
study there and then walk a few yards down the hall and be eating at one of the
best training tables in the country. It’s important when everything’s adjacent.
You’re immediately connected to academics and life skills and all of the
support systems that are going to keep you on task in the classroom and in the
community at the same time you’re getting better every day as an athlete.

Q: Do you use the Heisman Trophy/GameDay Experience Room videos torecruit?

A: We
do – off-season and in-season. They give everybody a big taste of what they’ll
see when they actually make an official visit that fall.

Q: Nebraska leads the nation
with a former Husker on at least one roster for 20 straight Super Bowls. Does
something like that influence recruiting?

A:We think it does. That’s
why we sent it to all of our recruits to make sure they understand another part
of our tradition and our history that’s important to them. We’re convinced we have what it takes to succeed at the next level.